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Lan Kwai Fong, Wanchai, Soho — it’s just been one drinking session after another this week. Many of my former drinking buddies from across the globe have crawled into Hong Kong this week to attend a certain week-long Swiss bank conference, giving me the perfect get-out-of-jail card to drink outside and pay with someone else’s card instead of mine for a change.

Covered bond issuers from Canada, Sweden and Australia gathered together in March as participants in this GlobalCapital/The Cover roundtable to discuss their markets. Borrowers still have plenty of issuance capacity but their plans for supply are likely to remain steady rather than spectacular over the foreseeable future. Issuers are conserving their covered pool collateral in case unsecured access becomes more constrained due to increased market volatility.

The bastion of the covered bond market is imposing greater transparency requirements on issuers, but the greater immediate challenge for banks is smooth deal execution in a stiflingly tight spread environment. Joe McDevitt reports.

With deleveraging nowhere near finished and loan growth in most European banking sectors sluggish, covered bond bankers are struggling to see an end to dwindling supply and tightening spreads. Tom Porter goes in search of anything that could buck the trend.

The closer the EU’s bank resolution rules come, the better for the covered bond market, as it is excluded from any possible bail-in plans. But despite the assurances that covered bond investors will escape a bail-in, nobody knows exactly how (yet). Uncertainty remains over covered bonds and liquidity too, with increasingly strident briefing and counter-briefing on whether to count covered bonds in the top class of regulatory liquidity. Owen Sanderson reports.

Indian credits have made a solid return to the bond market after month long absence. IDBI Bank broke the silence last Wednesday with a well subscribed deal, while Export-Import Bank of India's issue, which priced on Monday, was also met with a strong book. A good window seems to have opened for Indian credits, but with a general election looming, they need to move fast if they want to take advantage.

The strong start to leveraged buyout financings in Asia this year, driven by China, is raising hopes among bankers that the momentum is set to continue, with market conditions considered ideal for companies going private or making acquisitions. But with the Asian LBO market still in its early stages, dealers wanting to bring home the bacon need to follow three steps.

For the last few months, China Development Bank has been planning an offshore renminbi deal in the ASEAN region. Last week it pushed the button, and found demand where it wanted it. But while using allocations to target a location is all very well, the real breakthrough will be the development of a vibrant secondary market.

In the patter emerging market syndicate bankers roll out after a deal is priced, they often modestly (HA!) extol the virtues of their own execution, the timing of a deal and, in the slight hope of a quote massaging the ego of their client, the issuer’s own expertise.

Spring is the air and so is the smell of beer. St Patrick’s Day is one of those rare occasions when I can be persuaded to swap my beloved whisky for a good pint of stout.

With high profile listings from a range of technology firms in recent months, fears of a tech bubble have returned to many investors' minds. But the really dangerous stocks are lurking in the less exciting parts of the sector.

After many months of discussions, rumours and outright bickering, Chinese internet giant Alibaba Group announced on its corporate blog that it is listing in the US instead of Hong Kong. While Alibaba’s statement on Sunday might sound definite, do not be surprised if there are more twists and turns to one of the longest-running IPO sagas in recent years.